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A comment on Humira’s Drug Formula: Start at a High Price, Go Higher. Parent comment

Re:Humira’s Drug Formula: Start at a High Price, Go Higher by remontoire on Monday January 08, 2018 @05:41AM (#16095879)
Reduce costs of getting FDA approval and reduce patent lengths?
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Re:Humira’s Drug Formula: Start at a High Price, Go Higher by mcny on Monday January 08, 2018 @05:55AM (#16095935)
I think I read here about the problem of

1. Patent a drug 2. Make inconsequential changes 3. Patent it again 4. Repeat

I don't have any first hand experience in the industry so I don't know if this is a serious problem. I don't even know if it has a name!

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Re:Humira’s Drug Formula: Start at a High Price, Go Higher by pmyteh on Monday January 08, 2018 @05:57AM (#16095942)
It's called 'evergreening', FWIW.
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Re:Humira’s Drug Formula: Start at a High Price, Go Higher by marvin on Monday January 08, 2018 @09:45AM (#16097003)
What's stopping doctors from using a replica of the original once the initial patents expire?
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Re:Humira’s Drug Formula: Start at a High Price, Go Higher by adrianN on Monday January 08, 2018 @06:13AM (#16096001)
What's stopping a third party from doing 2 and 3?
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Re:Humira’s Drug Formula: Start at a High Price, Go Higher by celticninja on Monday January 08, 2018 @06:22AM (#16096031)
The original patent.
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Re:Humira’s Drug Formula: Start at a High Price, Go Higher by adrianN on Monday January 08, 2018 @06:47AM (#16096123)
Does the original patent apply if the compound is sufficiently different to warrant a new patent? That seems strange to me, but I know nothing about patent law.
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Re:Humira’s Drug Formula: Start at a High Price, Go Higher by kgwgk on Monday January 08, 2018 @07:15AM (#16096212)
Exclusivity is extended with patents covering new formulations, manufacturing processes, alternative dosings, injection devices, risk evaluation and mitigation strategies... When the molecule itself becomes “free” to copy, there may be still several patents more or less enforceable that prevent competitors from entering the market. Often the validity of patents is decided in court (see Copaxone for a recent high-profile case study).
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Re:Humira’s Drug Formula: Start at a High Price, Go Higher by rayiner on Monday January 08, 2018 @07:09AM (#16096188)
Once the original patent is expired, you can do whatever you want with it. Evergreening can’t lfsvent you from creating a generic version of the original patented drug. But demand for the generic might be limited if the new version of the drug is better. (People don’t want to be stuck taking an inferior version of a drug.)
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